Virtual Reality Colors School Horizons

The Dream Of A Multidimensional Education System Sleeps On, Stirring But Not Ready For Life's Mainstream.

April 2, 1995|By Linda K. Wertheimer of The Sentinel Staff

While House Speaker Newt Gingrich espouses the wonders that virtual reality could bring to schools, University High students actually use the technology to make atoms dance in front of their eyes.

Orange County's University is one of only a few schools in the nation working with virtual reality - a three-dimensional tool that's not yet ready for a widespread leap into schools, educators contend. It costs as much as $250,000 for a complete virtual-reality system that includes a helmet and glove to put users in the most realistic environment.

Educators say Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, was years ahead of where the technology is when he suggested recently that virtual reality should be a staple in schools. Gingrich said American children would become more eager to come to school and more enthused about books if they could experience Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book by donning a virtual-reality helmet and becoming one of the characters.

''You don't need virtual reality to get kids to be eager about The Jungle Book,'' countered Cheryl Williams, director of technology programs for the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va. ''That's kind of overkill.

''Virtual reality is an interesting, fascinating technology that probably will work very well in schools when the technology is perfected and the price falls.''

Schools already have an abundance of computers and other equipment not being used to the full potential, Williams said. In many schools, equipment even sits idle. Virtual reality won't help unless teachers know how to operate it and then actually use it, she said.

Virtual reality needs another five years to become developed enough for all types of classes and another 10 years before it could be a commonplace tool, predicted Michael Moshell. Moshell, an associate professor of computer science, works with virtual reality at the University of Central Florida's Institute of Simulation and Training.

Virtual reality, which the institute has been experimenting with for the military, still has basic problems, Moshell said.

''A great number of people get uncomfortable wearing the headset for a long time, like seasickness,'' he said. ''Some people tear helmets right off their heads.''

At University High, a team of students in the technology class has been working since August on computer programs to create a virtual-reality world for molecules. They're not complaining of sickness, but they don't spend long periods using the helmet.

The team works in a small room off University's larger technology classroom. The students have a computer, a large television screen, a virtual-reality helmet and other gadgets at their disposal, worth about $25,000. They use a computer mouse to touch objects in the multidimensional world they view through the helmet.

University High junior Christian Buhl is the group's informal leader. He and classmates in teacher Robert Catto's class believe their work could become part of future chemistry classes to help students see what molecules look like from all angles.

At a recent class, the group hovers around the computer like a bunch of teen-agers playing a video game. Buhl dons the helmet and types commands on the keyboard.

The students watch what Buhl sees on the large television screen. It's a soundless world of pink, purple and blue circles that grow as big as grapefruit when Buhl moves his head closer to a white board. He moves his head every which way to see the atoms. Other students debate what they need to do to create authentic shapes. Buhl uses the mouse to take apart molecules.

To get used to virtual reality, students first designed a game, which made them feel as if they were riding in the air on a surfboard.

The game gave them an adrenaline rush they don't get with the chemistry experiment. Students said working with the atoms gives them something else: preparation for careers as engineers and scientists; better understanding of chemistry and physics; and the chance to design an educational tool for the future.

''All you got in a book is a two-dimensional picture,'' said senior John Luppold, 17. ''When you can get in there, it helps you understand the shape and the molecules.''

Said Buhl:''I don't think kids will be deprived without it. But it'll help. It will make learning chemistry a lot easier.''

University's Catto imagines incredible lessons with virtual reality, particularly if schools could afford to give all students visual-reality helmets or glasses.

''The physics teacher is talking about a shape, and kids can't visualize it,'' Catto described. ''He says, 'OK, everybody put your glasses on.' Right in front of them is this image he was just talking about abstractly.''

At Orange County's Edgewater High, students use a form of virtual reality that doesn't involve helmets. They use a video camera to put themselves in a different scene.

''Without touching anything, you can make activities happen,'' said Chris Carey, who teaches computer animation and television production at Edgewater. ''You could pick the strings on a harp.''

Virtual reality and similar tools require students to use several senses, something teachers strive to do, Carey said.

''Are you going to remember it better if you saw it visually and touched it and made things happen than by reading it in a book?'' she said.